The Women’s NCAA 1-meter diving prelims have wrapped in Greensboro, and in terms of the team race, shouldn’t have much of an effect on tonight’s scores.
The two teams projected to score the most points tonight by a longshot, Cal and Georgia, will get no diving points. The Golden Bears didn’t enter a diver, and Georgia’s Olivia Ball, added in place of the team’s 18th swimmer earlier this week, finished just 34th and won’t score.
The big news individually is the return of 2013 NCAA Champ Samantha Pickens out of Arizona. Pickens, now in her senior season after redshirting last year, was the top qualifier with 330.05 points. That should vault Arizona way up the rankings. The Wildcats have two relays in B finals tonight as well as Bonnie Brandon seeded 9th in the 500.
Stanford, who were projected to lead the battle for third in team points after tonight, should be in even better shape there after Kassidy Cook qualified second. Adding her seeded points into Stanford’s projections, the Cardinal should break 100 points tonight and remain close enough to Cal and Georgia to make a run with a huge showing one of the next two days. (Stanford would now be projected at 101 to Cal’s 150 and Georgia’s 186).
A couple other teams that should see a solid diving bump: Miami and Kentucky, each with two scoring divers.
